Production of amino acids by the fermentation has been practiced using saccharides (carbohydrates) as the main starting materials, but it suffers from various problems such as high cost, unstable supply, transportation and preservation due to the fact that the starting materials are agricultural products. It also suffers from various problems that copious amounts of by-products derived from a large proportion of impurities contained in the starting material are produced, resulting in difficult purification, colored waste water is generated from the fermentation process, etc. Therefore, fundamental improvements have been sought.
As one alternative, a process using hydrocarbons as the starting materials has been studied, but even this process has a drawback that some hydrocarbons are gaseous and some are not soluble in water, which greatly restricts their application on a commercial scale and, as a result, the yield is limited.